Rutland Building Stone Atlas

Transcription

STRATEGIC STONE
STUDY
A Building Stone Atlas of
RUTLAND
Published May 2011
Derived from BGS digital geological mapping
at 1:625,000 scale, British Geological Survey ©
NERC. All rights reserved
Rutland Bedrock Geology
Click on this link to visit Rutland’s geology and their contribution to known building stones, stone structures and building stone
quarries (Opens in new window http://maps.bgs.ac.uk/buildingstone?County=Rutland )
Rutland Strategic Stone Study 1
Introduction
There is only minor folding and faulting of the strata
and, because of their low angle of dip, the rivers
The Rutland landscape has an individual and
deeply dissect the sequence and some of the oldest
distinctive character. It is a slightly hilly and rolling
beds can be found in the valleys of the Gwash and
county deeply cut by wide valleys whose features
the Welland, as far east as the county boundary
reflect the underlying Jurassic geology. Despite its
at Tickencote and Tinwell. Thin irregular and
attractive scenery the geology of Rutland is fairly
unconsolidated spreads of Boulder Clay and some
simple.
superficial sands and gravels, which were deposited
Rutland’s ferruginous sandstones and
ironstones
have commonly been used for building
throughout the county, while two of its limestones
(at Ketton and Clipsham) provide building stones
of both local and national importance. Rutland is a
rural county having undergone very little large scale
industrial growth. The development of the two main
market towns, Oakham and Uppingham have been
confined due to the instigation of conservation area
during the Pleistocene glaciations, conceal the solid
geology over large parts, mainly in the hilly areas in
the southwest and northeast, of the county. To the
west of the county, the underlying mudstones and
limestones of the Triassic and Lower Jurassic form
the floor of the lowland area eventually on-lapping
against the outliers of hard Precambrian crystalline
rocks which form the prominent hills in the
neighbouring county of Leicestershire.
policies, This has meant that a lot of the county’s
To the east of the county, the Middle Jurassic strata
stone built village character has been retained.
dip gently eastwards producing characteristic
Apart from Oakham Castle and the Bishop of
north-south scarp lands, similar to those of the
Lincoln’s house at Lyddington, little medieval stone
Cotswolds. The scarps are predominately formed
architecture of importance has survived in the
by the sandy and ooidal ironstones, ferruginous
county, however, there are still many good examples
sandstones and ooidal limestones, being the principal
of the smaller stone manor houses, yeomen’s
dwellings, and cottages of the late 16C and 17C.
The first systematic geological survey was
undertaken between 1867 and 1871 by J. W. Judd,
an officer of the Geological Survey of the United
Kingdom, much of the research for the Strategic
lithologies
of the Middle Jurassic of this area. In
Northamptonshire and Rutland the lower beds
of the Middle Jurassic are sandy and iron rich and
are less resistant to weathering than the overlying
limestones. Where they crop out in east and central
Rutland they produce rich red soils.
Stone Study for Rutland is founded on his work.
By contrast the overlying ooidal limestones show
In the past almost every town and village had its
little change in character over the length of their
own quarry, therefore many of the buildings are a
outcrop. They comprise the Lincolnshire Limestone
reflection of their underlying geology.
Formation which underlies much of the eastern half
The geological strata of Rutland were deposited
during the Jurassic. They range in age from the
Lias Group of the Lower Jurassic to the Kellaways
Formation at the top of the Middle Jurassic.
of the county. These limestones form a plateau which
dips gently away to the east before disappearing
beneath the mudstones of the Upper Jurassic and
recent Fenland deposits.
The ferruginous beds of both the Marlstone Rock
carbonate grains the size of a pin head or less,
and the Northampton Sand were exploited from
with an internal structure of concentrically layered
earliest times as building stones. However, in the
calcium carbonate crystals. Not all the Rutland
early 20C these ironstones were primarily exploited
limestones however are ooidal and some beds
as ore on a wide scale after the newly invented
include varying proportions of coarse shell
Bessamer Converter was introduced. This enabled
fragments (bioclasts). The amount of calcite cement
the extraction of iron previously difficult to obtain
that binds these grains together can also vary. In
from the stone and meant that the lower quality
some of the limestones there are sparse fine crystals
“iron” stone could now be used by the industry.
of calcium carbonate cement, as in the porous
Large open surface mines were created in the
Ketton Stone, in other limestones there is a more
ironstone outcrops around Pilton and Market
pervasive calcite cement producing a harder, less
Overton. This resource is now virtually exhausted
porous building stone like Clipsham Stone.
both as an ore and as a building stone source.
In the past the county of Rutland came under
Limestones are sedimentary rocks that accumulated
the ownership of two great estates: Ancaster
in layers or beds. In general the beds in the quarries
(Lincolnshire) and Burghley (Peterborough). Each
can range from coarse grained, shelly varieties
estate utilised its own quarries for the building and
which are difficult to work, but often quite durable
maintenance of their estates. The quarry at Ancaster
(ragstones and weatherbeds), to the close
was the favoured stone of the Earl of Ancaster when
grained and even textured ooidal beds of the best
building at Empingham and the stone was used to
freestones,
display coats of arms on buildings, as can be seen in
which are less hard and more amenable
to working and carving by the stone mason.
the below image, and boundary stones in the estate
fields. Ancaster Stone is an ooidal and bioclastic
Many of the ooidal limestones in Rutland are
limestone which is white to pale yellow and although
generally held in high regard as fine quality building
not quarried within the county was used in many
stones. The best freestone beds are composed
buildings in the past.
predominantly of ooids which are small spherical
© Historic Investigations
LOWER JURASSIC
Lias Group
Lias ‘limestones’
These are two series of finely laminated calcareous
mudstones with thin limestones occurring towards the
base of the lower and upper Lias successions, which were
used for lime burning in brickyards rather than as building
stone.
Marlstone Rock Formation
Marlstone and Marlstone Rock
This formation is a hard fossiliferous, ferruginous
limestone (locally an ironstone), with a variable thickness.
Due to extensive quarrying of the stone as an iron ore
there is very little of the Marlstone left in the county, the
stone used for conservation repair is the Oxfordshire
Marlstone, known as Banbury Ironstone, which also
weathers to a distinctive golden orange/brown colour.
Marlstone is seen in many buildings of the pre-industrial
quarrying era, for example in the villages and towns of
Pilton, Glaston, Lyddington, Uppingham and Oakham.
Oakham High Street in particular with the 15C Flores
House, chapel and shop fronts (below image) show a
varied use of this stone.
MIDDLE JURASSIC
Inferior Oolite Group
Northampton Sand Formation
All the beds of the Northampton Sand Formation are
ferruginous to some degree, the rocks weather in warm
shades of brown to yellow, but the range of rock types
varies across the outcrop. Long before the iron ore
industry took over, this Rutland ironstone was dug for
building stone in small stone pits and quarries on local
outcrops. These former stone pits were engulfed by
the subsequent iron ore excavations and lost when the
landscape was restored to agriculture, or used as landfill
sites, for example within Morcott Parish. Two kinds of
Northampton Sand can be distinguished, the plum-cored
brown, burrowed, calcareous stone which is also seen as
ashlar and quoins, and more ochreous, rusty and sandy
ironstone. Both building stones are seen within the few
kilometres towards Uppingham.
The above image shows a 17C thatch roofed house on
Main Street in the village of Caldecott, demonstrating
the colour differential of Northampton Stone with ashlar
banding in Uppingham Stone and Upper Lincolnshire
Limestone.
Uppingham Stone
This deep brown stone with shades of yellow was
quarried in various locations just outside the town of
Uppingham where it has been used extensively, especially
in the High Street and high status boundary walls. The
unweathered stone is a very hard dark grey/green/blue
rock. It was used for properties in the village of Caldecott,
Lyddington and Glaston. Commonly the Marlstone is
seen with contrasting paler limestone lintels, dressings
and mouldings from Ketton and Clipsham, or other
local Lincolnshire limestones quarries. Image to the
right shows one of the many walls in Uppingham built
of Northampton Stone with an Uppingham Stone
segmented arch.
Northampton Stone
This stone has been quarried extensively for building
stone. Cropping out at Uppingham, Lyddington, Caldecott,
Pilton, Glaston and in a small outcrop at Barrowden,
mostly the whole of the western side of the county. It
is a medium brown ironstone with a purplish to grey
core and has been used for houses, churches and walls.
In older buildings the ironstone has crumbled and
deteriorated. Lower levels in the succession were known
as the “Bastard Stone” by quarrymen as it contained
no iron ore. At Lyddington (below image), the English
Heritage property “Bede House” built in the late 15C
is an good example of a building using Northampton
Stone with Limestone quoins and decoration, also used
in the Braunston cottages, with smaller blockwork being
prevalent.
Lincolnshire Limestone Formation
The Lincolnshire Limestone Formation is the most
thickly developed Middle Jurassic limestone unit in the
East Midlands and is an important source of building
stone and lime for cement manufacture at Ketton. The
formation is subdivided informally into lower and upper
Lincolnshire Limestone units. The principal building stone
quarries (Ketton, Clipsham, Stamford and Casterton) all
lie within the upper division of the formation. The use of
Lincolnshire Limestone as both ashlared freestone and
smaller rubblestone blocks is ubiquitous in buildings
throughout the county. It has been used for side and rear
elevations, interior walls and for the lining of the inside of
freestone ashlar walls. Many lower status buildings of the
late 18C are built using Lincolnshire limestone as can be
seen in the image top right.
‘Lower’ Lincolnshire Limestone
This informal unit of the formation includes numerous
thin limestone beds which were locally used for
wallstones. However, the most important building stone
produced from this interval is the fissile sandy limestone
known as the Collyweston Slate.
Collyweston Slate
The slate mines lie just outside the eastern boundary of
the county in Northamptonshire but have historically
supplied stone roofing slates for numerous buildings in
Rutland and its adjacent counties.
The stone was used extensively for roofing and evidence
from the Roman towns at Great Casterton and Thistleton
confirm its early use as a slate. There are still potentially
workable deposits at Collyweston and Easton on the Hill
but despite extensive efforts to kick-start the industry
new production of this roofing material is still minimal.
Fine examples of the use of these slates can be seen at
Apethorpe Hall, Rockingham Castle, the Guildhall (in
London) and numerous buildings in Stamford.
The Collyweston Slaters Association provides extensive
instruction on how to use the slate and also suggest that
builders today are buying the old slate from homeowners,
replacing the roof with a more contemporary material in
order to maintain a second hand supply which reduces
the demand for a new supply from the mines. Prior to the
19C, Collyweston Slate was used extensively in Rutland
but with the advent of the railway it became cheaper to
“import” Welsh slate for roofing material. Below image
shows a Collyweston Slate roof.
© Amanda White
‘Upper’ Lincolnshire Limestone
This informal unit includes the most important freestone
limestones of the county.
Ketton Stone
This is a fine quality porous, ooidal limestone quarried
in large blocks. It is cream to pale yellow in colour and
occasionally contains pale pink-stained beds. It has often
been described as the perfect oolite because of its well
sorted, spheroidal ooidal texture. The quarries have been
commercially worked since the 1500s. Ketton Stone has
been more widely used outside the county than within,
most notably at Cambridge where it has been used in
many of the colleges for over 300 years, for example
at the 17C Wren Library at Trinity, the Wren chapel’s
at Pembroke and Emmanual colleges and extensively in
the buildings of Clare College. Large quantities of Ketton
Stone were used to build Burghley House in Stamford
(1553-87). During the 18C thousands of headstones and
monuments of Ketton Stone were made for churchyards
in Rutland and its neighbouring counties. Ketton Stone
was again used extensively in the 19C in new Cambridge
college buildings and extensions at King’s Trinity and St
John’s, and also for dressings in Sandringham House,
Norfolk. In the 20C new buildings at Downing and
Christ’s colleges were constructed using Ketton Stone.
Hibbins House, image below, in Ketton is a fine example
of the stone’s versatility with carved ashlar frontage
displaying the pink hue and carved doorways.
Ketton Quarry is also a major producer of finely crushed
Ketton lime for cement.
Ketton Rag (Top & Bottom Rags)
This is a hard, dark brown, banded stone, more
pervasively cemented than the Ketton Stone with visible
intergranular, crystalline (spar) calcite cement and a more
coarsely bioclastic (shelly) texture . It often has white
calcitic veins running through it and is widely used as a
walling stone in and around Ketton (above image).
Stamford & Great Casterton Stones
These fine grained ooidal freestones are relatively free
from bioclastic debris, and are quarried in the north-west
of the county. Over the years there have been five
quarries some within the boundary of Stamford and
others at Great Casterton, hence the dual names, but it is
the same bed that is being worked in both locations.
Many of the houses in Great Casterton are built of this
stone and it was used extensively to rebuild Stamford’s
medieval churches after they were destroyed in the War
of the Roses, and many of the town’s buildings are faced
with this stone. It is comparatively easy to work by hand.
Stamford Stone was also used at Downing College in
Cambridge and at Ely Cathedral. Below the freestone is a
bed of a hard, well cemented and lighter coloured ooidal
limestone which was commonly termed Stamford Marble
and used internally for fireplaces, flooring slabs and steps.
The image top right shows an early 1900s house on
Great Casterton High Street, constructed of Stamford
and Great Casterton stones. The below image also on the
High Street shows the stones weathered colour.
Edith Weston Stone
This stone is very similar to the Stamford and Ketton
stones but was not as heavily exploited. It has been used
for building and memorial stones. Below the main bed of
limestone is a “slate” bed which is denser than that found
at Collyweston.
Clipsham Stone
The quarries at Clipsham have a long history of use from
Romans times. It has been used extensively to repair
many decaying Oxford college buildings, for example, All
Soul’s, Christ Church and New College etc. Elsewhere it
was used at Windsor Castle in the 14C and in the 20C
it was used extensively for the restoration of the Palace
of Westminster and re-building the blitzed House of
Commons. Much of the famous façade of the Houses of
Parliament is now re-faced with Clipsham Stone. Locally,
because of its durable character, it was used for more
decorative purposes in pinnacles, cornices and sills.
The stone has a shelly texture and is cream in colour,
sometimes with a light blue hue (blue hearted), it is hard
but not difficult to work and weathers to silver grey. The
top image shows the use of Clipsham stone in the village
of Clipsham.
The quarries at Clipsham are substantial and have
exploited several limestone beds. The umbrella name
of “Clipsham Stone” covers all the stone quarried
including a high quality fine grained silver/white stone
used for internal features such as stone fireplaces. Many
of the new buildings within the county utilise Clipsham
limestone from the present quarry. Currently a number
of companies supply these stones, which use various
commercial names, including Clipsham Gold, Clipsham
White, Stretton Honey and White Stretton. Houses
built today use a variety of products from these quarries
including sawn, hand hammered, cropped or tumbled
stones. In Church Street, North Luffenham many of the
cottages that have been renovated have used this stone
for new ancillary buildings such as garages,
MIDDLE JURASSIC
Great Oolite Group
Blisworth Limestone Formation
Great Oolite Limestone, Blisworth
Limestone
This lithologically highly variable limestone contains
oysters and other shells, peloidal grains and ooids in
a micritic muddy matrix. The principal quarries are near
Oundle in Northamptonshire, however the limestone is
found at Ketton Quarry overlying the Rutland Formation.
As of 2007 it had not been used as building stone
Cornbrash Formation
Cornbrash limestone
Greetham Stone
The quarry at Greetham originally contained a coarse
grained, bioclastic limestone used only for aggregate. In
the past two years, however, an upper bed suitable for
masonry was exposed, it is fine grained and honey yellow
in colour and has a fine fossiliferous layer.
This unit is exposed as the uppermost limestone at
Ketton Quarry and is a rough, fossiliferous, muddy, hard
grey limestone which can only be quarried by blasting.
When weathered it breaks up onto flat layers of a light
brown colour. It is principally used for rough walling and as
a road aggregate.
Glossary
Ashlar: Stone masonry comprising blocks with carefully
worked beds and joints, finely jointed (generally under
6 mm) and set in horizontal courses. Stones within each
course are of the same height, though successive courses
may be of different heights. ‘Ashlar’ is often wrongly used
as a synonym for facing stone.
Calcite: A mineral made of calcium, carbon and
oxygen — CaCO3; the principle carbonate component of
limestone, Chalk and marble.
Carbonate: A general term used for sedimentary
rocks consisting of 50 per cent or more of either calcite
(calcium carbonate) or dolomite (magnesium carbonate).
Cemented: The materials which bind the grains and/or
fossil components together to form a rock.
Cornice: A moulded projection crowning an entablature,
moulding, pedestal, wall, or opening. It is also the
ornamental moulding around the top of a wall below the
ceiling, or the external moulding where the roof meets
the wall.
Dressings: To say a building is constructed of brick with
stone dressings means that worked stone frames the
corners and openings of the structure.
Ferruginous: Containing iron minerals usually in the
form of an iron oxide which gives the rock a ‘rusty’ stain.
Fossiliferous: Bearing or containing fossils.
Freestone: Term used by masons to describe a rock
that can be cut and shaped in any direction without
splitting or failing.
Ironstone: Sedimentary rock which is composed of
more than 50% iron-bearing minerals.
Limestone: A sedimentary rock consisting mainly
of calcium carbonate (Ca CO3) grains such as ooids,
shell and coral fragments and lime mud. Often highly
fossiliferous.
Lintel: A horizontal beam over an opening to support
the wall over it.
Lithology: The description of a rock based on its
mineralogical composition and grain-size e.g. sandstone,
limestone, mudstone etc.
Mouldings: Anything with a contour or section, either
projecting or inset, to give emphasis, usually to horizontal
and vertical lines.
Mudstone: A fine-grained sedimentary rock composed
of a mixture of clay and silt-sized particles.
Ooid: A spheroidal grain of calcium carbonate formed by
precipitation (by algae) of calcium carbonate in concentric
layers.
Pinnacle: A summit or apex. The crown of a buttress,
or a vertical abutment terminating in a spirelet, cone or
pyramid.
Quoin: The external angle of a building. The dressed
alternate header and stretcher stones at the corners of
buildings.
Ragstone: Coarsely shelly limestone.
Rubble: Rough, undressed or roughly dressed building
stones typically laid uncoursed (random rubble) or
brought to courses at intervals. In squared rubble, the
stones are dressed roughly square, and typically laid in
courses (coursed squared rubble).
Sandstone: A sedimentary rock composed of sandsized grains (i.e. generally visible to the eye, but less than 2
mm in size).
Sedimentary Rock: A rock that is commonly formed
by the binding together (lithification) of sediment particles
(e.g. sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, limestone).
Segment (Arch): A part cut off. A segmental arch
is one which consists of part of a circle, less than a
semicircle.
Stratigraphy: Branch of geoscience dealing with
stratified rocks (generally of sedimentary origin) in terms
of time and space, and their organisation into distinctive,
generally mappable units.
Acknowledgements
This study, written by Carole Bancroft-Turner and Debbie Frearson of Historic Investigations, Rutland, is their contribution
to the Strategic Stone Study, sponsored by English Heritage.
Edited by Graham Lott, British Geological Survey
Designed by Tarnia McAlester, English Heritage
We are grateful for advice from the following:
Don Cameron, British Geological Survey
Graham Lott, British Geological Survey
Further Reading
Alexander, J. S. (1995) Building Stone from the East Midlands Quarries: Sources,Transportation and Usage Journal Medieval
Archaeology, Leeds, Society for Medieval Archaeology.
Arkell, W. J. (1933) The Jurassic System in Great Britain. Oxford. Clarendon Press.
Arkell, W.J. (1950) Rutland Stone. Leicestershire and Rutland Magazine.
Beaver, S. H. (1982) Ironstone in Rutland: in Rutland Record No 3, RRS.
Clements, R. G. (2004) Grange Top Quarry, Ketton. Leicester. University of Leicester.
Clifton-Taylor, A. & Simmons, J. (1987) The Pattern of English Building. London. Faber and Faber.
Cooper, J. (2006) The Extraction and Marketing of Ketton Freestone in the Nineteenth Century. Rutland Record No.24.
Rutland Local History and Record Society.
Curl, J.S. (2003) Encyclopaedia of Architectural Terms. Donhead.
Hewlett, H. B. (1935, 1979 (reprint)) The Quarries, Grantham. Harrison.
Hudson, J. D. & Clements, R. G. (2007) The Middle Jurassic Succession at Ketton, Rutland. Proceedings of the Geologists’
Association, p.255-258, Leicester. University of Leicester.
Ireson, A. S. (1986) The Stones of Stamford. Stamford. Speigl.
Jones, C. (1990) Geology: Rutland Natural History Society 21st Anniversary booklet. Eaton & Kirk, ed. Stamford, Speigl.
Judd, J. W. (1875) The Geology of Rutland: Memoirs of the Geological Survey, London. Longmans & Co.
Kearey, P. (2001) Dictionary of Geology. Penguin Books.
Mounfield & Turnock (1989) Rutland’s Ironstone Quarries in 1930: from Rutland Record No9, RRS. Rutland.
Purcell, D. (1967) Cambridge Stone. Faber and Faber Ltd.
Sutherland, D.S. (2003) Northamptonshire Stone. Dorset. Dovecot Press.
Taylor & Ireson (1983) English Stone Building. Hampshire. BAS.
Toghill, P. (2010) The Geology of Britain - An Introduction. Airlife.
Internet Sources
Collyweston Slate information, available at: www.collywestonstoneslaterstrust.org.uk.
British Geological Survey Lexicon of Named Rock Units, available at: www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/.
University of Southampton Archaeology, Stone in Archaeology, available at: www.ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue.

Rutland Building Stone Atlas

Transcription

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